Data for: Effect of using a cognitive aid on content and feasibility of debriefings of simulated emergencies

Background Adverse events in patient care are often caused by failures in
teamwork. Simulation training and its debriefing can contribute to
improving teamwork and thus patient care. When conducting debriefings,
there are several design factors that can potentially influence learning
outcomes. This study examines the use of a cognitive aid to help structure
the content of debriefings and compares it with debriefings that are
merely roughly structured. In addition, the feasibility of the debriefing,
the satisfaction of the participants and their teamwork during the
training are investigated. Methods In a simulated night shift, seven teams
of four to five medical students (n=32) took part in a total of six cases
that simulated common situations in an emergency medicine environment and
received a debriefing on their teamwork after each case, either in the
intervention condition with the help of the TeamTAG tool – a cognitive aid
focusing on selected teamwork principles from Crisis Resource Management
(CRM) – or in the control condition without it. The facilitators noted the
topics of the debriefings and rated their experience of conducting them;
the participants indicated their satisfaction with the debriefings, as
well as their assessment of the importance of CRM principles. In addition,
the quality of teamwork was assessed using the Team Emergency Assessment
Measure (TEAM). Results The analysis showed no difference in the number of
teamwork principles discussed between the control and intervention
conditions, but topics were repeated more frequently in the control group.
The TeamTAG guideline was focused on and implemented by the tutors, who
discussed the CRM principles included in the TeamTAG more consistently
than in the control condition. The tutors in both conditions were
satisfied with the implementation, and the use of TeamTAG facilitated time
management. There were no differences in participants’ satisfaction, their
assessment of the importance of the teamwork principles, or the quality of
teamwork between conditions. Conclusion The use of a cognitive aid can
help to direct the focus on certain topics or learning objectives and
facilitate time management through pre-structuring; however, a difference
in learning outcomes (in terms of the quality of teamwork) could not be
identified. Besides the influence of a certain structure or script, a
strong influence from the individual guiding the debriefing is likely.